KuCoin AMA With Toncoin (TON) — The Future of Cryptocurrency

Dear KuCoin Users,

Time: October 27, 2022, 14:00 - 16:01 (UTC)

KuCoin hosted an AMA (Ask-Me-Anything) session with the founding members of Toncoin, Andrew Rogozov and Steve Yun in the KuCoin Exchange Group.

Official Website: https://ton.org/

Whitepaper: https://ton.org/whitepaper.pdf

Follow Toncoin on Telegram and Twitter.

Guests

Andrew Rogozov — Founding member of TON Foundation

Steve Yun — Founding member of TON Foundation

Q: Please give us a brief overview of TON to give the audience a bit of background context.

Andrew: TON is a layer-1 PoS blockchain originally designed by the Telegram team and was handed over to the open-source community in 2020. TON blockchain solves the biggest issue of Ethereum: speed and cost–scalability. Among the existing competitors to Ethereum, TON is unique because it already has the most advanced forms of sharding – dynamic and infinite sharding – already implemented inside. TON’s vision is to disrupt the existing internet with several components combined in a single blockchain, including the DNS, Decentralized Storage, and Websites. Another very important aspect of TON is the community. In particular, our developer community is experienced in building user-friendly applications for mass audiences, which we will share more about today.

Q: What is it about TON that made Telegram decide to use it?

Andrew: Speaking as a founding member of the TON Foundation, I’m delighted that Telegram chose to build its collectibles auction on the TON blockchain as they begin to experiment with exciting Web3 products. This is an endorsement of how feature-rich, fast, and resilient TON is, with the potential to onboard a massive audience of Telegram users into Web3.

The username auction is a great demonstration of how the ease of tokenization on TON can open up a host of tangible use cases of blockchain technology. We see huge potential for further launches of new products, so we hope that Telegram will continue to build on TON.

Steve: The main reason is that TON is simply the most scalable blockchain. Bitcoin doesn’t support smart contracts. The cost of using Ethereum is just too high. Solana is fast but does not support the complex types of smart contracts needed to create an innovative web3 experience.

Q: Are there any other TON products that are deeply integrated with Telegram?

Andrew: This username collectibles platform is the first of its kind that transforms an existing Web2 use-case into Web3. And this is a great example of how blockchain technology might be utilized in big services like Telegram. But there are a lot of other use cases that already exist in Telegram, and our amazing community creates them.

@Wallet: a Ton wallet accessible right inside the Telegram chat with fiat and crypto on-ramp, p2p-marketplace, and the core feature of it – the ability to send Toncoin to other Telegram users right from the attachments menu.

@Mobile: a global virtual roaming network that accepts Toncoin.

@GetgemsNftBot & @Disintar_bot: Fully-featured NFT marketplaces right inside the Telegram messenger that not only enables viewing but also buying and selling of all NFTs, including usernames and domains.

@TonSwapOfficialBot: an AMM inside the Telegram messenger.

@Donate: a Patreon-like platform to accept donations and subscriptions for Telegram channels, which also supports Toncoin.

A full list of all the apps on TON is available on our website.

Q: In your view, how else can Telegram develop Web3 functionalities in other parts of their messenger?

Andrew: I can’t speak on behalf of Telegram, but I see a lot of potential use cases, like the tokenization of stickers and emojis. People love to use them in their communication. And since Telegram is an open platform for creators (everyone can create their sticker pack or emojis), integrating this platform with blockchain can add another layer of emotional binding with the digital identity in the messenger, where we all spend a significant part of our lives.

Q: Please give us a more detailed preview of how TON Play will be integrated into Telegram and how you plan to source quality GameFi projects.

Andrew: TonPlay is a platform for web3 game developers and gamers.

For game developers, it will provide all of the necessary support to simplify the onboarding process and start building on the TON blockchain: from writing smart contracts, tooling, and analytics to all of the guidelines and best practices to run games successfully.

For gamers, TonPlay will be the all-in-one ecosystem, including Telegram unified login, @wallet for payments, the ability to launch games right inside the Telegram app (along with launching them on a separate website), playing with other users and using advantages of the blockchain collectibles like owning and trading right inside the messenger.

TonPlay pipeline already consists of 15 different titles made by indie game developers and professional studios. The project team has vast experience and a wide network of game developers who were previously building social games on the Facebook platform. To onboard new teams, they have launched an acceleration program that game developers can participate in. If you are building a game and choosing the blockchain, we recommend you connect with the team by following this link.

Steve: TON Foundation and many contributors in the ecosystem have plans to support content creators and game developers. Developers can get a significant part of their development costs subsidized by accessing the grants program. Starting January next year, there will be a lot of online and offline hackathons aimed at fostering the growth of TON’s gaming ecosystem. We look forward to more people participating in hosting these events through our sponsorship program.

Q: On attracting new teams and developers, do you have any grant programs or ecosystem funds for those looking to take part?

Steve: TON Foundation is looking forward to developers who will open-source their tools that may benefit the ecosystem in exchange for grants. All builders on TON looking for financial support should apply to ton.org/grants divided into milestones worth $5,000 or less.

TON Footsteps is a community bounty program proposing things currently missing in the ecosystem. Developers can propose and take any pending tasks at this link.

TONcoin.fund is a third-party ecosystem fund with backing from Huobi, Kucoin, and MEXC, who are waiting to fund the most talented teams in the crypto industry building on TON. Direct here for more information with regards to it. TON Alpha-Vista (TAV) is another independent ecosystem fund run by Alphanonce and Vistalabs. Also, we have several venture studios in our ecosystem, where founders can get incubation or acceleration support from companies like FSLabs and Hexa. The bar is high, but top-tier investors and studios in crypto are ready to listen to the founders on TON.

Q: Do you have any educational programs to help even more developers to start building on TON? For example, lectures, hackathons, or offline events?

Steve: Yes, there are currently many online resources for developer onboarding. For example, Tonspace.co is a website created by our Head of Developer Onboarding, and it is a one-stop shop for learning and documentation.

TON Society blog posts - key community developers have contributed to blog posts that cover introductory topics (such as highlighting the differences between development environments in Ethereum versus TON) as well as advanced topics (smart contract creation, anatomy of Jettons, etc.).

In addition, we hold official online hackathons called Smart Challenges. These are short-sprint hackathons aimed at developers with some knowledge of TON. Independent teams worldwide also apply to hold a local Hack-a-TONx, thereby activating the local developer communities. We recently held a successful one in Prague, Czech Republic, and future ones out of Taiwan and South Korea are planned.

Lastly, there will be a month-long online hackathon in partnership with DoraHacks, one of the largest hackathon organizers. This will take place from Jan 30 to Feb 3, 2023.

One can stay tuned by subscribing to @toncoin or following TON events!

Q: How do you plan to expand the developer ecosystem?

Steve: To make FunC (our developer language) a household name, we will ensure to partner with learning platform partners such as Coursera. Also, common feedback from developers in other ecosystems is that even with a grant given, the level of support from key community developers could be a lot higher. We plan to mitigate this by ensuring our key community developers can readily help with questions via platforms such as TON Answers (our native-built developer Q&A forum). Also, commonly asked questions about developing TON are archived properly for future developer needs. In addition, we partner with major incubators in key developer markets to engage with talented developers. Lastly, while we have international expansion goals, the execution must be at the local community/geography levels, and thus we are continuously identifying developers from strategic locations. Similar to how there are KOLs for generating retail buzz, we believe there should be developer KOLs to generate local developer community interest.

Q: Can I write on solidity for TON?

Steve: TVM is not compatible with EVM. FunC is C++ based language, which many developers already know about. We see developers learning FunC enough to build in about a month.

Q: Do the token holders have the right to participate in the governance of the TON project?

Steve: Yes, all token holders can participate in governance and decide, for example, on the inflation rate. Currently, TON has about 0.60% inflation per year.

Q: How can you increase further the value of TON?

Steve: Toncoin is a utility token, a gas required to run or access decentralized apps on the TON blockchain. Therefore, it should not be viewed as an investment asset.

Q: Where can I buy TON?

Steve: On top of Kucoin, the full list can be viewed here.

Q: What is the ranking of TON in the Coinmarketcap?

Steve: As of now, TON is ranked 31st.

Q: May I see your whitepaper?

Steve: The whitepaper can be viewed here. Also, the Primer is available here. Furthermore, Our website is rich in resources.

Q: How do you listen to your community?

Steve: We have a very active community in Telegram on our main channel @toncoin, and we always listen to feedback and requests. Regarding the target audience — we are on a mission to onboard hundreds of millions of non-crypto natives, so we cover all of the target audiences related to the major use cases.

🎁 Participate on the Toncoin AMA quiz now for a chance to win 5.75 TON!

The form will remain open for five days from publishing this AMA recap.

KuCoin and Toncoin have prepared a total of 1,100 TON to give away to AMA participants.

1. Free-ask section: 32.5 TON

2. Flash Mini Game: 320 TON

3. Post-AMA Quiz: 747.5 TON

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